October 25: Psalms 62 5-8
Key Verse: Psalms 62 7
My salvation and my honour depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Devotion:
These Psalms were written in an age where people were beginning to learn about the coming of Christ, the Messiah. They had something to hope for. They knew their salvation lay in God’s hands and maybe they were not quite sure how things would happen, but they had hope and learned patience to wait in that hope. They knew they did not have to worry about things they could not understand because they knew God was in control.
Nowadays after Christ's triumphant entry and exit from this world, we again wait with patience in the hope of His next return. But our hope is more than just faith now because we know Christ has already come for the first time to pay our sin debt on the cross. We know He has promised to return; He made that promise to us. These are all facts written down in History. Why then should we be worried about when it is going to be? Why should we be anything other than encouraged?
Our weaknesses are our lack of patience and lack of faith. If we are able to sit down and study God's Word, we are able to see the truth. If we are able to sit and meditate on God's Word, we find and understand the truth. If we are able to discern God's Word, we have the truth explained. Yet we are not patient enough to subject ourselves to anything longer than a few minutes of understanding, thinking those few minutes are more than enough!
We need to understand that our strength is in Him, in His Word, in our faith, in our hope, in our Salvation. None of this would be possible without God first creating us and then offering us a perfect sacrifice to cover our sin debt against Him. We need to trust in Him at all times, not just a few minutes a day when we dare to look at our bibles, but wholly, always trusting in Him for everything – only then do we find perfect peace and rest!
Points to Ponder:
How much do you desire a perfect life?
How often do you stray from God each day?
October 24: Psalms 37 7-9
Key Verse: Psalms 37 7
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Devotion:
How many times have you asked yourself “why do those wicked people prosper”? When we are learning to become Christians or try to grow in our Christian lives, the evil one will try and use things like this to weaken our resolve; these are the stumbling blocks he build in our paths. There are many passages in our bibles which say that the evil will not prosper and they are used by people who want to break down our relationship with God. The answer is right in front of us in the words which others will use against God: “they will not prosper”.
Part of being a successful person is being content. No matter how much money, belongings or property you have amassed over the years, it is going to count for nothing if you are not content with your lot because if you are not content, you will always be wanting more! That to me, is not prosperous. As you go through life you begin to see that no matter what you go through to gain physical wealth, it never seems to be enough. No matter how much you desire to gain more, it never seems to be enough. King Solomon was the richest person in the world, yet he was not satisfied with what he had physically. He tried just about everything under the sun to try and find happiness through physical things – yet found all wanting.
1 Timothy 6 10 reminds us that the love of money is the root of all evil. It is not the riches but the desire for more which brings us down. Following those lusts will lead us into all manner of evil. Why should we be foolish enough to desire to be like that? Why should we worry ourselves over being like that? Why should we worry ourselves over being in the “rat race” for more money when we know it will not satisfy? Why beat yourself up over someone in that losing race when we can be content with our lot in Christ; for through Him we shall have everything we need!
Points to Ponder:
How much money do you think would make you happy?
Why focus on money when we can have everything through God?
October 23: Micah 7 2-7
Key Verse: Micah 7 7
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.
Devotion:
If ever there was a description of the modern world, it is here. With so many people only looking out for themselves and not taking a care for anything or anyone else – this description could be of the modern world we live in now. Yet this was written before Christ was born of a man. The prophet Micah saw no trust in anyone apart from in God. He saw no reason to trust anyone but God. How dreadful a description of people who are here to worship God!
It is no wonder Jesus came to preach about brotherly love and to try to get a few good people to come together to show the world that a small amount of brotherly love can go a long way. Although Micah paints such a desperate picture of the total lack of trust between people, even in families, this should not be the way of the Christian. Christ has taught us brotherly love will allow us to see the side of life that He would want us to. He knows that through a bit a love we can learn to trust and depend on others again. He knows we can learn to love and trust so long as we follow the best example.
The very best example we have is in Christ Himself and not in the people around us. We need to learn His Word so we can find out how He wants us to behave. We need to apply His word so we can behave more like Him. If we want to be trusted, then we have to show we too can be trusted. If we want to be believed, then we have to show we can be believed. Building up trust is a whole lot harder than dashing it down. We need to start off on the right foot so we can continue in harmony with others rather than being constantly out of step with God. But what we have to be careful of is that we must not fall into step with the rest of the world otherwise we will be falling into line with the world which Micah so aptly describes in these verses!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you follow as an example?
When was the last time that you asked “What would Jesus do”?
October 22: Proverbs 26 24-26
Key Verse: Proverbs 26 24
Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbour deceit.
Devotion:
I don't think any of us could truly admit to never holding a grudge against someone at some time. We all like to think we will be able to forgive and forget, but at some stage we think others go a bit too far and we start remembering what they are doing. Before long, we have got a whole string of things we have remembered and then we start to break those instances down into deceitful things in our hearts. At first, we probably do not mean anything by them, but the longer they stay in our hearts, the more they eat up at us and the more we dwell on them. Before long we have used them to plot something against our adversary – or at least that is now how we see them!
When we get to that stage we may well say anything to convince others we are not holding a grudge, but deep in our hearts we have those grudges and they are gaining in strength hour by hour as we think over them over and over. It is no longer just the one thing we remember which was done against us, but a whole string of things, building up as if blocked by a dam. When we are confronted, we may well try our best to cover it up, but before long, the deceit in our hearts will overflow and consume the words that come out of our mouths. Then it is too late – everyone sees what we have been doing for the past days. Weeks, month…
There is one big thing we seem to have forgotten here. We are on view to Christ at all times! Our heart is an open book for Him to see what we are doing. As soon as we start to take on those grudges, He is waiting for us to stop and admit them to Him. We may well be careful enough to not let anyone see what we have inside, but God knows. Before long He will allow us to see what we are doing, and if we are listening to Him, we will recognise what we are doing wrong. But far too often we will block things out just so we can continue with our self-deceit to prolong our grudges; just so we can feel like we have got our own way!
Points to Ponder:
Are you holding a grudge?
Are you listening to God?
October 21: Matthew 24 22-25
Key Verse: Matthew 24 24
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Devotion:
You would think after a few thousand years of pretenders standing forward and saying they are Christ, people would have learned not to accept the lies and to depend on God's own Word to filter out the truth. But not. New generations come and go, and as they do, they want to be the ones to find a Messiah for themselves; to this extent they start to believe anything until it is too late. With so much in the way of modern media and journalists flying round the globe all the time, you would think the lies would be hard to cover up – but many still do filter through society. Many are perpetuated by the media themselves without them knowing or meaning to.
Each year as man gets more and more wicked, we hope a little bit more and sometimes we want Jesus to come sooner rather than later so we may be spared the horrors we see ahead. We hope for peace but know it not possible. We hope for our Messiah yet think it not probable. We search for any sign and start to believe many. Because of our weaknesses, we give in to the subtle lies around us and hope they are true; being dashed against the rocks when we find out they are lies. Just like Adam and Eve found out that giving in to a simple lie brings home a harsh reality – so we will find the harsh realities which lie ahead when we give in to those Satanic lies too.
We think of the good times we can have, we think of the pleasures we are missing out on, we think of what could be... if only we could depend on what those people are saying! So we give in a little and they continue to spoon feed us the small lies until we too are in bed with their deceptions. We have fallen into the age old trap of yet another lie from the evil one. History is strewn with such cases from the fall of a single person to the fall of a whole country – all because of a simple lie. We have to stand upon God's Word to be able to tell those lies apart from everything else. We need to be by God's side so that we are not deceived too.
Points to Ponder:
Who is the single person you are most likely to believe?
How do they stand up to God's Word?